Under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese engineering enterprises are increasingly involved in large, complex projects in culturally diverse environments, especially in South and Southeast Asia. In these contexts, cultural differences are not a peripheral issue but a core "soft variable" shaping the process and outcome of international engineering negotiations. This paper examines how cultural differences influence three key stages of the negotiation process—relationship building and information exchange, substantive bargaining, and agreement conclusion and relationship maintenance—and how a systematic coordination mechanism can be constructed. Drawing on Hofstede's cultural dimensions, high-/low-context communication theory, and research on negotiation styles, the paper builds a stage-based analytical framework to identify typical conflict points. On this basis, it proposes a full-cycle coordination mechanism comprising pre-negotiation cultural intelligence preparation, in-process communication and deadlock-breaking arrangements, and post-negotiation relationship and agreement maintenance. Theoretically, the paper contributes to the intersection of cross-cultural management, international business negotiation and engineering project management. Practically, it offers guidance for Chinese engineering firms, especially Yunnan-based enterprises engaging South and Southeast Asian partners, to enhance cross-cultural negotiation capability and improve project success rates.
Yunhong et al. (Wed,) studied this question.